1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to empty medicinal and food capsules and more particularly, to improved medicinal and food capsules having a plurality of triangular slots formed on the inner surface of a cap circumferential slot of a cap member for preventing the semi-locking or final locking in a prelocking state, and for preventing the separation of the cap member from the body member in a final locking state so as to facilitate mass-production by utilizing an automatic filing apparatus. Also, the cap member and the body member are preliminarily locked prior to final locking, and the capsule is not deformed.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are many types of medicinal capsules which are well known in art comprising a cap having a cap circumferential slot and a raised member and a body which may or may not have a body circumferential slot. However, these capsules suffer from a number of deficiencies such as, for example, since such capsules as known in the prior art, for example as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9 comprise a cap A including a cap circumferential slot and a raised member d, and a body B having a tapered mouthpiece e, when the capsule is preliminarily locked in an atmosphere of moisture, heat, etc., the capsules can be transformed in the direction indicated by the arrows and changed in dimension as shown by the dotted lines (FIG. 9). As shown in the prior art of FIGS. 10, 11(A) and 11(B), such capsules comprise a cap including a cap circumferential slot and a raised member g.sub.1, and a body B including a body circumferential slot g.sub.2, whereby the raised member g.sub.1 is slidably locked to the body circumferential slot g.sub.2 of the body B. However, when the capsule is preliminarily locked in a moist or hot atmosphere, the capsule can be readily transformed from the capsule as shown in FIG. 11(A) to the capsule as shown in FIG. 11(B). As will be noted, the labels of the cap A and the body B do not match when the capsule changes its dimension.
Accordingly, the present applicant has developed an improvement in the empty medicinal capsule as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,792,451 entitled "Medicinal Capsule" which comprises a cap member containing a first circumferential slot formed on the outer surface of the upper portion, at least one raised member formed on the inner surface of the cap, a body member containing a second circumferential slot formed on the outer surface of the upper portion thereof for slidably locking with the first circumferential slot of the cap member during final locking, and at least one connecting member formed on the outer surface of the second circumferential slot of the body member and extending internal of the body member for slidably locking with the raised member of the cap member. The raised member and the connecting member are dimensioned relative to each other so as to form a space therebetween whereby when the cap member and body member are preliminarily locked prior to final locking, and the capsule is not deformed. However, in the pre-locking state, the capsule is semi-locked or finally locked and sometimes, the cap member is separated from the body member in a final sealing state.